Disclosed is a method for forming Si-containing films, such as SiN film, by PEALD using trisilylamine (TSA) at ultralow temperature, such as a temperature below 250° C.

A film forming method includes: preparing a substrate having a recess within a processing container; forming a silicon-containing film on the substrate by activating a silicon-containing gas with plasma and supplying the activated silicon-containing gas to the substrate; partially modifying the silicon-containing film after the silicon-containing film closes an opening of the recess; and selectively etching the modified silicon-containing film.

Described are lanthanide-containing metal coordination complexes which may be used as precursors in thin film depositions, e.g. atomic layer deposition processes. More specifically, described are homoleptic lanthanide-aminoalkoxide metal coordination complexes, lanthanide-carbohydrazide metal coordination complexes, and lanthanide-diazadiene metal coordination complexes. Additionally, methods for depositing lanthanide-containing films through an atomic layer deposition process are described.

A tacrolimus drug-eluting stent manufacturing method according to the present invention enables a tacrolimus drug to be strongly and stably bound onto a stent, while also not necessarily involving a separate step of introducing a surface-binding functional group for the binding of a drug onto a stent and a step of introducing, into the drug, a functional group capable of binding to the surface-binding functional group, and a tacrolimus drug-eluting stent manufactured by the manufacturing method has a greater total drug elution amount and has a more excellent delayed drug-elution property.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to processing an optical workpiece containing grating structures on a substrate by deposition processes, such as atomic layer deposition (ALD). In one or more embodiments, a method for processing an optical workpiece includes positioning a substrate containing a first layer within a processing chamber, where the first layer contains grating structures separated by trenches formed in the first layer, and each of the grating structures has an initial critical dimension, and depositing a second layer on at least the sidewalls of the grating structures by ALD to produce corrected grating structures separated by the trenches, where each of the corrected grating structures has a corrected critical dimension greater than the initial critical dimension.

The present disclosure is directed to a showerhead for distributing plasma. The showerhead includes a perforated tile coupled to a support structure. A dielectric window is disposed over the perforated tile. An electrode is coupled to the dielectric window. An inductive coupler is disposed over the dielectric window. At least a portion of the inductive coupler is angled relative to at least a portion of the electrode.

A method of post-treating a dielectric film formed on a surface of a substrate includes positioning a substrate having a dielectric film formed thereon in a processing chamber and exposing the dielectric film to microwave radiation in the processing chamber at a frequency between 5 GHz and 7 GHz.

Provided is a plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process for depositing etch-resistant SiOCN films. These films provide improved growth rate, improved step coverage and excellent etch resistance to wet etchants and post-deposition plasma treatments containing O.sub.2 and NH.sub.3 co-reactants. This PEALD process relies on one or more precursors reacting in tandem with the plasma exposure to deposit the etch-resistant thin-films of SiOCN. The films display excellent resistance to wet etching with dilute aqueous HF solutions, both after deposition and after post-deposition plasma treatment(s). Accordingly, these films are expected to display excellent stability towards post-deposition fabrication steps utilized during device manufacturing and build.

A surface coated cutting tool includes a tool substrate; and a hard coating layer on the tool substrate. The hard coating layer includes, in sequence from the tool substrate toward a surface of the tool, a titanium carbonitride inner layer, a titanium nitride lower intermediate layer, a titanium carbonitride upper intermediate layer, a titanium oxycarbonitride bonding auxiliary layer, and an aluminum oxide outer layer. Titanium nitride grain boundaries in the lower intermediate layer and titanium carbonitride grain boundaries in the upper intermediate layer are continuous from titanium carbonitride grain boundaries in the inner layer. The texture coefficient TC(422) of titanium carbonitride in the inner layer and the upper intermediate layer is 3.0 or more, and the texture coefficient TC(0 0 12) of α-aluminum oxide in the outer layer is 5.0 or more.

A method and system for forming a film on a substrate are disclosed. Exemplary methods include using a first plasma condition to form a layer of deposited material having a good film thickness uniformity, using a second plasma condition to treat the deposited material and thereby form treated material, and using a third plasma condition to form a surface-modified layer—e.g., reactive sites on the treated material.